this is a call for help with ideas for my campaign. Hoping to summon some of the greatest force users here
We are using first edition and I am narrating the adventures in the 1st Edition Section of this forum.
I have found a couple of related posts about Tapani sector and Earth Invasion but wanted to do a more specific post about this:

How would you GM a Planet Invasion

Premise:

- My two players come from planet Edden. Once a great fertile almost paradise utopic place now is being industrialised and mined as they are rich on an important mineral. The Empire controls this planet now.

- Players have joined the rebellion to rally allies to eventually regain control of the planet. One of the players is actually the legitimate ruler forced into exile.

- So far they are doing well. Latest, they just saved Ackbar and his B-Wing project.

My problem is the whole campaign is gearing towards regaining control of their home planet. It is not a problem really... in fact I think it's awesome... however this is the first time I GM ever and it scares me! because I thing I got myself into something too big for my knowledge of GMing...

I thought some ideas and approach the whole thing by breaking it down?

The more the players complete, the easier it will be to stage final invasion.

I would love a final space battle while players are doing a mission or something like that (as in they have to take the planetary shields down to facilitate a rebel fleet invasion).

- Now (at this point of the story) is too early to do this. They need information, work on the neighbour systems etc.

- Depletion of supply convoys?

- Infiltration missions? There must be somebody on the planet still loyal to my player's house. Maybe regain control of these people.

- Planet defenses: the players know about the defenses but the Empire might have reinforced the planet. They could infiltrate to take some of this down?

... any more ideas?

By the way, sorry if my English is not the best. It's not my first language.

Finally I do take a lot of points from this forum. You guys are great! On the 1st edition subforum some users (specially Wajeeb) left a lot of interesting little information pearls that I have already incorporated to the campaign. Thanks for this!!!

If you want to invade a planet, you'll have to get a lot of materiel into the system in question. Some to safeguard against a counterattack, some to clear the orbits of the planet, and some in order to put boots on the ground.

Space superiority is a must, but won't win you your planet. Only boots on the ground will matter then.

First, you'll likely want to scout out the system in questions. Low-emissions sensor probes drifting through the system. Stealth starfighters lying doggo in various reaches. You need to get the disposition of any in the opposing force.

If you can, you want to get agents on the ground or to infiltrate the system otherwise. If there's trade going in and out of the system, you will likely want to have agents to pose as merchants or whatnot - and you want to get as much info as possible. Slice droids if you can.

Your second phase is escalation to acts of sabotage. Release viruses or other pathogens to take out troopers. Blow up infrastructure. Taint Tibanna gas or other blaster gas. Sabotage or slice planetary defenses. Have fifth columnists turn units and what have you.

Third phase, you want to take out anything that can threaten your assets in orbit, and you want any resupply to go to you rather than the enemy. Piracy isn't piracy when you appropriate it in war. If you can, subvert planetary defenses so that you can use it instead of destroying it. Same goes for ships and what have you.

Fourth phase, you want to make sure you have advance warning in case the opposing force regroups or sends a task force after you. Sensors, mine fields, agents in neighbouring systems, whatever. Preferably you can arrange for a distraction in a different system - a rebellion, disaster, whatever.

If you want to invade a planet, you'll have to get a lot of materiel into the system in question. Some to safeguard against a counterattack, some to clear the orbits of the planet, and some in order to put boots on the ground.

Space superiority is a must, but won't win you your planet. Only boots on the ground will matter then.

This, times 1 million. One has to remember that during the Classic Era, the Rebellion in its early stages was a guerilla movement, not a standing army. The Rebellion's tactics back then involved hit-and-fade attacks on places where the Empire's defenses were weak and/or undermanned. This would force the Empire to commit more and more resources to protecting assets that the Imperials previously thought were safe. In this time, the Rebellion knew better than to try to "hold the ground" because if they did, the Empire would come and stomp them with overwhelming force.

In canon, that actually happened after the Battle of Yavin. It was originally called the Mid Rim Campaign. After the destruction of the Death Star, the Rebels took advantage of the resulting disarray of the Empire and launched a number of planetary offensives in the Mid Rim and actually succeeded in establishing a number of bases across the Mid Rim. Then came the Mid Rim Retreat and the Empire forced the Alliance to abandon all the new bases they had just created.

With the exception of Lothal (and that's a special case), I don't know of any planet being formally liberated from the Empire by the Rebellion before the Battle of Endor (the turning point of the Galactic Civil War). It's your SWU, of course, but keep in mind that liberating a planet from the Empire is going to be a looooong campaign (which is not a bad thing at all) because any successful insurgency requires long and meticulous planning and not a little bit of luck.

Zarn wrote:

First, you'll likely want to scout out the system in questions. Low-emissions sensor probes drifting through the system. Stealth starfighters lying doggo in various reaches. You need to get the disposition of any in the opposing force.

If you can, you want to get agents on the ground or to infiltrate the system otherwise. If there's trade going in and out of the system, you will likely want to have agents to pose as merchants or whatnot - and you want to get as much info as possible. Slice droids if you can.

Your second phase is escalation to acts of sabotage. Release viruses or other pathogens to take out troopers. Blow up infrastructure. Taint Tibanna gas or other blaster gas. Sabotage or slice planetary defenses. Have fifth columnists turn units and what have you.

Third phase, you want to take out anything that can threaten your assets in orbit, and you want any resupply to go to you rather than the enemy. Piracy isn't piracy when you appropriate it in war. If you can, subvert planetary defenses so that you can use it instead of destroying it. Same goes for ships and what have you.

Fourth phase, you want to make sure you have advance warning in case the opposing force regroups or sends a task force after you. Sensors, mine fields, agents in neighboring systems, whatever. Preferably you can arrange for a distraction in a different system - a rebellion, disaster, whatever.

And then, unless your objective is to hold, you get the f... out of there once you've achieved your primary objectives.

All true, especially the last part about getting the hell outta Dodge when (or preferably before) the enemy brings reinforcements. In Legends, the Rebellion didn't switch from guerilla tactics to a formal standing army until after the Battle of Yavin when the Empire was already clearly on the run. In canon, the one exception to this, namely the Mid Rim Campaign, turned out to be a disaster for the Rebel Alliance.

My point is that, if you're trying to liberate an entire planet from the Empire, it's going to take a good long while. First you have to plan out your campaign to liberate the planet (and here's I'm talking about the PCs in-universe rather than you as a GM planning your RPG campaign), then second, your PCs have to make the actual preparations for the operation, then third, they actually have to engage in combat operations to soften up the Empire's defenses (and this is probably the part of the campaign, both in-universe and out, that will take the greatest proportional amount of time) and finally, the PCs can participate in the final battle to liberate the planet (either in the sky or on the ground, depending on what's needed).

But the PCs should only perform the final phase if they're reasonably sure they can take the planet back in the first place as well as hold the planet if the Empire tries to counterattack after a successful liberation.

And who's to say that the (out-of-universe RPG) campaign needs to end once the PCs have successfully liberated the planet? Your campaign could go on for even longer if the Empire counterattacks and conquers the planet again, forcing the PCs to try to liberate the planet all over again...._________________Sutehp's RPG Goodies
Only some of it is for D6 Star Wars.
Just repurchased the X-Wing and Tie Fighter flight sim games. I forgot how much I missed them.

The two main WEG resources I can suggest are the ImpSB and the article "A World To Conquer" in the Star Wars Adventure Journal #2. While both address planetary invasion and domination from the Imperial perspective, there is a lot of useful information that would apply either way.

The main problem you're going to run into is that the Alliance will almost never be in a position to fight from a position of strength. Even after Endor, they're going to have to use guerrilla-war tactics and hit the enemy where they aren't. Also, any attempt to actually liberate the planet in the long-term - as opposed to having the planet almost immediately re-invaded and occupied by the Empire in overwhelming force - will have to wait until 2-3 years after Endor, when the Empire is in disarray. If you just ran the Strike Force Shantipole mission, that's a good 3-4 years away chronologically.

If you want to know what happens to planets that successfully "liberate" themselves from the Empire during this time period, read up on the planet Derilyn in the Elrood Sector. Not a pretty picture. And that's assuming the planet is considered a sufficiently valuable resource to bother retaking: there's also the possibility the Empire would just park a few Star Destroyers or Torpedo Spheres in orbit and turn the planet's surface into a parking lot._________________"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

- My two players come from planet Edden. Once a great fertile almost paradise utopic place now is being industrialised and mined as they are rich on an important mineral. The Empire controls this planet now.

- Players have joined the rebellion to rally allies to eventually regain control of the planet. One of the players is actually the legitimate ruler forced into exile.

- So far they are doing well. Latest, they just saved Ackbar and his B-Wing project.

My problem is the whole campaign is gearing towards regaining control of their home planet. It is not a problem really... in fact I think it's awesome... however this is the first time I GM ever and it scares me! because I thing I got myself into something too big for my knowledge of GMing...

How would you GM this?

Set 5-6 mission goals.. Goal 1 could be to try and set up a resistance base or three.
Goal 2, could be to try and gather allies, to help in overthrowing the empire
Goal 3, could be some side missions to help out do 2, such as getting weaponry, medical supplies etc..
Goal 4, could be some sabotage side missions to neuter the imperial's response.

and so on

But unless the local lord has the power to come up with some capital ships, or a few dozen squadrons of fighters, even one ISD in orbit will soon put a kybosh on most any attempt to retake the planet.

Add to that, only having 2 players (each running 1 pc, so 2 characters), IMO it will be very hard for them to do most of that, especially if/when it goes into combat, as with even one dropping, it halves their combat effectiveness.

Lord Zash wrote:

- Infiltration missions? There must be somebody on the planet still loyal to my player's house. Maybe regain control of these people.

That could work, but it would necessitate they get ONTO the planet, and do some leg work to try and find those former loyalists.. Some may not actually be loyalists, but be working with the Empire, but appear to be loyalists. And if the 'exiled one' is known to the empire they would be on the look out for him coming in..

Lord Zash wrote:

- Planet defenses: the players know about the defenses but the Empire might have reinforced the planet. They could infiltrate to take some of this down?

With only the 2 characters, i can't really see how they could infiltrate and take down some of those defenses off planet (in space).

CRMcNeill wrote:

If you want to know what happens to planets that successfully "liberate" themselves from the Empire during this time period, read up on the planet Derilyn in the Elrood Sector. Not a pretty picture. And that's assuming the planet is considered a sufficiently valuable resource to bother retaking: there's also the possibility the Empire would just park a few Star Destroyers or Torpedo Spheres in orbit and turn the planet's surface into a parking lot.

That is a very good point. If you make yourself enough of a nuisance, the empire can very well bring the "heavy end of the hammer" down on you, and glass the planet. Or just barrage a few spots, to create natural disasters:
Imagine the entire battery of an ISD turned onto the great lakes of America? How many problems would flash frying those entire lakes cause? Or hitting the san andreas? Or yellowstone caldera.._________________Confuscious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

That's what you're potentially looking at if your planetary liberation is too successful._________________"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.